Thumbwheel radio quality

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66Valiant528

66Valiant528

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I have been without tunes in my car for 27 years. This has always been about the price of a functional am/fm thumbwheel.
I've decided it's time to put a cd player in the trunk and install a Bluetooth ready radio. But I still refuse to pay 800....anybody have any experience with retromanufacturing out of Nevada? 400 bucks???
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66Valiant528 said:
I have been without tunes in my car for 27 years. This has always been about the price of a functional am/fm thumbwheel.
I've decided it's time to put a cd player in the trunk and install a Bluetooth ready radio. But I still refuse to pay 800....anybody have any experience with retromanufacturing out of Nevada? 400 bucks???View attachment 1715903007
Click to expand...

I used their in dash speaker and am very happy with it but no experience with their radios.

I don't know if you're interesting in going this route but this little thing right here will allow you to play music off your phone and it is plenty loud.

Attempted to install it into a nonworking thumbwheel radio so it would be completely concealed. I connected the knob to the thumbwheel mechanism but the thumbwheel gears just don't have enough strength to turn the knob consistently so I'm just going to install it under the seat. All that is required is you reach down and turn the knob to turn it on/off and adjust the volume. Could always just adjust the volume on your phone as well.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07XBF9GXW/?tag=fabo03-20
 
I have a Retrosound in my Bug and I really like it. It has great features with Bluetooth, USB and auxiliary jack.

I talked with a guy at a cruise night with a thumbwheel Retrosound in his 69 Dart and he really liked it too.

One thing I noticed was that the thumbwheels on the Retrosound didn’t look too great. They looked like they didn’t protrude far enough out like the factory radio.

Here’s the Retrosound in my Bug.


DBAEE6AA-BEB0-4035-A6BD-FE2947C28C8D.jpeg
 
A friend of mine put one of the retro radios in his '69 GTX convertible. He's not impressed. I'll put the stock AM back in the GTS and use a portable bluetooth speaker in the car and play the playlist on my phone.
 
66Valiant528 said:
I have been without tunes in my car for 27 years. This has always been about the price of a functional am/fm thumbwheel.
I've decided it's time to put a cd player in the trunk and install a Bluetooth ready radio. But I still refuse to pay 800....anybody have any experience with retromanufacturing out of Nevada? 400 bucks???View attachment 1715903007
Click to expand...
I have GREAT music in my 69 Barracuda, and it costs less than $100. I bought a small (about 8"long) Sony Bluetooth speaker. I also have an app on my phone called AccuRadio that has thousands of songs on it. there are dozens of oldies channels (50s, 60s, 70s), and blues, jazz, country, you name it. It is FREE. After you give 25 songs a rating of 4, you get your own channel with your 'saved' music. Then, every time you give a song a good rating going forward, it is added to your channel. I have about 100 (all my faves) on my channel. When I jump in the cuda, I make sure my phone and speaker are fully charged, ilnk the phone to the speaker and cruise with tunes. You can't believe how good the music sounds coming from that small speaker. Try it. You don't need to spend a lot of money.
 
harrisonm said:
I have GREAT music in my 69 Barracuda, and it costs less than $100. I bought a small (about 8"long) Sony Bluetooth speaker. I also have an app on my phone called AccuRadio that has thousands of songs on it. there are dozens of oldies channels (50s, 60s, 70s), and blues, jazz, country, you name it. It is FREE. After you give 25 songs a rating of 4, you get your own channel with your 'saved' music. Then, every time you give a song a good rating going forward, it is added to your channel. I have about 100 (all my faves) on my channel. When I jump in the cuda, I make sure my phone and speaker are fully charged, ilnk the phone to the speaker and cruise with tunes. You can't believe how good the music sounds coming from that small speaker. Try it. You don't need to spend a lot of money.
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Thanks
 
Jim Lusk said:
A friend of mine put one of the retro radios in his '69 GTX convertible. He's not impressed. I'll put the stock AM back in the GTS and use a portable bluetooth speaker in the car and play the playlist on my phone.
Click to expand...
Is.it this brand? There are like 3 restoradio companies out there. One is the oem looking one like Year One has. This resto manufacturing is a small unit with a different fake face. I'm not even sure if the pushbutton feature works.
 
I have one in my Barracuda. Not a direct fit. In my case, none of the lenses that come with it actually fit the opening in the dash. The actual mounting locations didn't match up with the original. All in all I think it's pretty nice.
 
Google Bluetooth amplifier on Amazon. They are about $30 or so. You just hook it to power and speakers, turn the volume all the way up control it and play music from your phone. Works great. It is so small you can hide it anywhere. Very cheap, there are a bunch of different ones that are more expensive and powerful.

A45CD1C1-FCEE-4777-AF2C-63828FF92DEC.jpeg
 
I bought one of those RETROSOUND radios from Summit. What I received was a "kit" that was VERY COMPLICATED and tons of screws adapters etc. First thing I noticed was bolt holes for the mounting brackets didn't line up??? I boxed it up and promptly returned it. I bought one of the radio's from ANTIQUE AUTOMOBILE RADIO out of Florida. It looks 100% original with modern internals YES it costs more but came complete and best of all it works great.

IMG_1836.JPG
 
I ordered a Bluetooth module. I have Sirius on my phone. I may end up with a dash unit as well but can't beat 27 bucks! It has 2 50w and 1 100w sub output. The retro manufacturer says 4x45
 
RON REAGLE said:
I bought one of those RETROSOUND radios from Summit. What I received was a "kit" that was VERY COMPLICATED and tons of screws adapters etc. First thing I noticed was bolt holes for the mounting brackets didn't line up??? I boxed it up and promptly returned it. I bought one of the radio's from ANTIQUE AUTOMOBILE RADIO out of Florida. It looks 100% original with modern internals YES it costs more but came complete and best of all it works great.

View attachment 1715903538
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This is not that brand. But thanks for the info. I will look into Antique Automobile Radio.
 
Do your research I've heard good/bad with Retro. The thumb wheels they provide dont fit properly is 1 issue.
If it was me, I would buy an original one and have it retrofitted for modern guts, OR install a hidden system(under pass seat).
 
I'm going with a USB player in the 66. I have over 1,000 songs on a thumb drive to play randomly. I also run an original AM/FM radio with the front speaker. Best of all worlds. The USB costs a little over $100 sounds fantastic and is hidden.
 
I guess the best of both worlds is the Year One style. 800 bucks but it fits and has all the modern features. I did buy a Bluetooth module . That's my immediate solution. Maybe I'll try harder to find an am/fm swap meet radio. If gas gets any more expensive I'll just be in the driveway and my garage stereo kicks ***!
 
66Valiant528 said:
I guess the best of both worlds is the Year One style. 800 bucks but it fits and has all the modern features. I did buy a Bluetooth module . That's my immediate solution. Maybe I'll try harder to find an am/fm swap meet radio. If gas gets any more expensive I'
Click to expand...

There is a place that will upgrade your am radio with all the good stuff. I have one of those also, but have not tried it. Nowhere near $800 and you know your radio will fit and sound great. Let me know and I'll see if I can find his card.
 
One other thing I'll mention is we had our factory am/FM refurbed and they added an aux input for phone etc. If I could redo it, I wouldn't have sunk any $$ into the factory. They (Wards Radio in Alabama) did a good job but pricey as heck. Over $500 CDN with shipping. It looks great in the dash, but the factory wattage is something like a measly 5 watts lol. Shoulda kept that $$ and invested in a hidden style system. Could have had one bought AND installed with amp for $600. Live n learn
 
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